Posted on 09/12/2001 11:16:03 AM PDT by j_tull
Major league baseball called off its entire schedule for both Wednesday and Thursday following terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, and other sports could soon follow with cancellations.
The terrorist attacks brought professional and college sports to a standstill nationwide, and it was unclear when they would resume.
Baseball's move was without precedent since 1918, when the season was cut short by almost a month because of World War I. It raised the total of postponed games to 45, calling into question whether the regular season could be completed as scheduled in 2 1/2 weeks.
Many college football games scheduled this week were called off and the NFL was deciding whether to play Sunday.
But baseball was the most immediately affected of the major sports, with teams fighting for playoff berths and Barry Bonds hopes to hit eight more home runs to break Mark McGwire's record of 70.
"Major league baseball remains very sensitive to the aftereffects of the terrible tragedy that has struck our nation," baseball commissioner Bud Selig said.
The minor leagues postponed playoff games Wednesday for the second straight day and the New York-Penn League canceled the remainder of its championship series, declaring Brooklyn and Williamsport co-champions.
The NFL, criticized for playing after President Kennedy's assassination in 1963, wasn't sure whether to play this weekend's schedule.
"We'll gather information and speak to several parties within the next 24 to 48 hours," league spokesman Joe Browne said.
Tim Coughlin, the son of Jacksonville Jaguars coach Tom Coughlin, was in the World Trade Center when the first plane crashed into it, but escaped uninjured.
College football commissioners considered postponing the weekend's entire schedule. Three games set for Thursday night and four on Saturday already were postponed, including No. 13 Washington at No. 1 Miami.
"The games themselves are insignificant in the face of what has happened today," NCAA president Cedric Dempsey said.
Commissioners of the NCAA's Division I-A conferences, including the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern, held a conference call to discuss their options. There were 116 Division I games scheduled for Thursday through Saturday. The ACC postponed all sports through Thursday, while the Pac-10 did the same through the weekend.
The Thursday games called off were Texas Tech at Texas-El Paso, tentatively pushed back to Saturday; Ohio at North Carolina State, rescheduled for Nov. 24; and Penn State at Virginia, not immediately rescheduled.
Saturday's Washington-Miami game might be played Nov. 24. Other games wiped out that day include Arizona State-UCLA at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. (might be played Dec. 1); San Diego State at Ohio State (rescheduled for Oct. 20); and Brown at San Diego (canceled).
Also:
- The PGA Tour canceled Thursday's starts of the World Golf Championship and two other tournaments. Commissioner Tim Finchem said the World Golf Championship in St. Louis will begin Friday with 36 holes.
The Tampa Bay Classic will open with 18 holes each on Friday and Saturday and a 36-hole conclusion. The same schedule has been applied to the Buy.com Tour event in Oregon. The Senior Tour will remain on schedule, with a 54-hole event starting Friday in North Carolina.
"This is a sad, sad day in America," Tiger Woods said.
- Olympic officials said security for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics will re-evaluated. A $200 million plan to protect athletes and spectators is no longer sufficient, said Mitt Romney, president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee.
IOC president Jacques Rogge said Wednesday the games will go on as planned from Feb. 8-24.
"These dramatic events will not awaken us to security issues. But, for legitimate reasons, we will reassess and re-evaluate everything," Rogge said.
- NASCAR canceled Friday's qualifying for the New Hampshire 300 but made no decision concerning the race itself. The Indy Racing League will decide Wednesday on the status of Sunday's Chevy 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
- Major League Soccer postponed all four of Wednesday night's games. In Columbus, Ohio, the U.S. Women's Cup doubleheader involving the United States against Japan and Germany vs. China was canceled.
- The Thoroughbred Racing Association canceled all its cards Tuesday, and Wednesday's racing was called off at Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Ill.; Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore; and Turfway Park in Florence, Ky. Belmont Park in New York called off its cards through Friday.
- Garnet "Ace" Bailey, 53, a former NHL player with Boston, Detroit and St. Louis, and director of pro scouting for the Los Angeles Kings, was aboard United Airlines Flight 175, one of two planes that hit the World Trade Center. Mark Bavis, an amateur scout for the Kings, also was aboard.
- European soccer's governing body postponed all its matches for the rest of this week "out of a mark of respect" for the victims of the attacks. Eight Champions League and more than 40 UEFA Cup matches were scheduled to be played on Wednesday and Thursday. The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, criticized UEFA for allowing eight Champions League games to be played Tuesday, saying: "As the whole world found itself exposed to the terrorist threat and as the American people plunged into mourning, it was decided -- in an inopportune way, to say the least -- to play the scheduled games."
- FIFA said its four World Cup qualifiers in Asia will be played this weekend and will go forward with the World Under-17 Championship, set to start Thursday. "In tragic circumstances such as these, football must symbolize the ideals of fair play and nonviolence," FIFA president Sepp Blatter said. "The world today is no longer the one we knew. But football must remain a beacon of hope."
As for baseball, it was only the third time the major leagues postponed an entire day's schedule for a reason other than labor strife, according to Scot Mondore of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
The others were Aug. 2, 1923, when President Warren G. Harding died; and June 6, 1944, when Allied forces invaded France in World War II. Exhibition games were called off on April 14, 1945, two days after the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In Pittsburgh, the New York Mets left a hotel across the street from a federal building and moved to the suburbs as a security precaution.
Atlanta pitcher John Burkett, at home in Dallas following an off-day, borrowed the car of former teammate Rusty Greer and planned to drive about 850 miles to Atlanta, where he had been scheduled to pitch against the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.
"I felt obligated to my team to be there," he said. "I would've felt sick watching the game at home, knowing I could've and should've been there, but wasn't."
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